Until now, food retailers and consumer packaged goods were somewhat sheltered from the toughening economy, with 40% of people spending more on groceries than 3 months ago (according to Deloitte ) – a result not just determined by inflation, but the fact that the tough current economy means that people spending are more time at home cooking for themselves rather than eating out in bars and restaurants. With this in mind, food retailers would do well to explore options like Tesco’s partnership with Foodie.fm. Share it on StumbleUpon. The Foodie.fm Tweet This! MORE >>

Share it on StumbleUpon. Jon Stokes Social media for retail Social media tools and technology Social networks China China social media Pinterest Sina WeiboTweet New Chinese social media sites have long been inspired by popular sites and trends from the West, such as Facebook’s distant cousin Renren and Twitter’s brother Sina Weibo.  It is no surprise then that they have embraced Pinterest with both arms. We’ve found over 30 Chinese Pinterest variants (and we reckon the number is growing); here are a selection of the most interesting ones. China pinterest sites. Faxian. MORE >>

Share it on StumbleUpon. Social media Social media for retail Social media news L2 luxury brands social mediaA recent report has revealed that social media adoption by the fashion industry has exploded over the last three years. The latest L2 Luxury Digital IQ Index report which was led by Scott Galloway, Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern, reveals that there is now widespread adoption of social media channels by fashion brands. Burberry. Donna Karan. Kate Spade. Diane von Furstenberg. Coach. Calvin Klein. Gucci. Marc Jacobs. Dolce & Gabbana. John Varvatos. Tory Burch. MORE >>

Tweet There’s a lot of buzz about big data in the retail banking sector right now as all the major banks work out how best to bring new unstructured data sets (such as social data and mobile data) together with transactional data in order to improve customer experience, become more competitive and drive growth. Where should retail banks start in Big Data? Share it on StumbleUpon. recently discovered this great debate from September 2012 that provides a clear understanding of where banks are today in their use of big data. Identifying and reducing fraud. Tweet This! MORE >>

Taking just online retail sites as an example, the Hitwise report shows that traffic from social media sites has risen by 13% in the year to September 2010 with 9.1% of visits to all online retailers now coming from social media. Share it on StumbleUpon. Tags: Matt Rhodes Social Media Social commerce Social media for retail Social networks facebook FreshNetworks Google Hitwise Jimmy Choo Social network Social network service social search YouTube Image by LarimdaME via Flickr. Facebook accounts for 1 in every 6 page views in the UK. of all internet visits in the UK. MORE >>